WARNING: This story contains female submission, a Daddy Dom/babygirl relationship, hot oral sex scenes, and the beginning of an erotic BDSM lifestyle. This is intended for mature (18+) audiences only.

Lola’s top priority in life has always been her tattoo parlor, Skin Deep and for years all she has wanted was for it to succeed. But when two of her employees decide to venture to bigger cities for a change of pace she is devastated and finding replacements proves to be both difficult and stressful. When she does hire River Hawthorne she knows that there is something different about him and whatever it is, she finds it attractive. What she doesn’t know is what River is about to do to her…Or just how much time she’ll spend on her knees for him.

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She takes a moment to think about it and finally nods. She follows me from her office to the break room. I can tell that she’s been thinking. If she’s anything like me, she’s thinking about last night. Only I’m willing to bet she’s wondering what she did wrong, why she did what she did, and what she is going to do now. I want to tell her that she didn’t do anything wrong. But to feed her the cliché line of “it’s not you, it’s me” seems like a whole lot of bullshit at this point. I could easily man up and just tell her…but then I risk not only being fired but losing her altogether. Makes me hate being so fucked up. She looks at me with sad eyes as she has a seat at the table.

I pull out a chair across from her and begin sitting our food and drinks on the table. I look up at her with my eyes and catch her staring. She quickly looks away and purses her lips. It doesn’t seem to be sitting well with her either. I’m reducing her to nothing more than a fucking one night stand. What a dick move. I open a straw and place it in one of the thirty-two ounce cups and push it over to her. “Have a drink.”

Her cheeks fill with color and she takes the cup, bringing the straw to her lips. She has a quick sip and looks away from me and down to her right. She can barely look at me. Not like I can blame her. She presses her lips around the straw for a moment and I catch her eyes again. She hurries to look away as she sets the cup on the table. I start pulling her food from the bag. A bacon cheeseburger and a large order of fries from Pepper’s Bar and Grill just down the street. “Hungry?”

She finally looks at me and gives me a little nod. “Starved, actually.”

“Then you shouldn’t have told me that you didn’t want anything,” I say. “You have to eat.” I begin unwrapping her burger and place it front of her. She looks up at me confused as I sit down and grab my own burger and fries.

“I’m just trying to keep the shop running,” she explains. “I have to work your schedules around all the appointments you have all while making sure someone can be out front in case we have walk-ins.”

“Understandable, but you can’t just not eat. It's not good for you.” I say, diverting my attention to my burger. I look up slightly and see that she is chewing quietly but seems to refuse to look at me as she reaches for her cup and has a drink of pop.

“Sometimes I just forget.”

“Well,” I start, “you shouldn’t. It’s not healthy.”

She gives me a silent nod as she still looks to my left.

“Something interesting over there?” I ask, wiping my mouth with a napkin.

Her mouth drops and her eyes move to meet mine. “I’m sorry…I just…” Her voice trails and she looks up at me with the saddest blue eyes I've ever seen in my life.

“Lola, this doesn’t have to be awkward,” I tell her. “Things happened really fast last night. I never wanted to make things like this…I just…see I have this thing…” I stop my words and watch as her mouth drops.

“Oh, my fucking God.” Her blue eyes go from sad to angry quickly as she pushes her food away.

I shake my head. “No, that’s not what I meant, see, I just…there’s this thing about me.” Out with it, dude. Tell her. Tell her now. Tell her what you are. I look down at her burger that has no more than two bites taken out. “You should eat some more. Two bites will not help you. I know it’s not exactly healthy, but it’s something.”

“Do you have a fucking girlfriend?” She snaps in a loud whisper, leaning across the table.

I shake my head furiously. “No! I wouldn’t do that!”

“Some disease?”

This one just makes me laugh as I sit back and shake my head. I lean back in my chair and shake my head. “No, I don’t have some STD that I didn’t tell you about.”

“Then what?! Just tell me?! What thing do you have?!” She looks directly into my eyes. She’s worried, she’s scared, and she’s a mess. I can see that all in her eyes. She pouts slightly and gets up. “It was fun…really, it was great. I hope you like your job here.”

She pouts again, this time crossing her arms and nodding as she starts to walk away.

“Lola, sit down, now,” I command her.

She turns to look at me, shocked at my order. Her mouth drops and her arms slowly fall to her sides.

“Sit down and eat, now.” I order.

She reaches for the chair and pulls it out slowly. She looks at me, pouts, and finally has a seat, taking a bite of her burger. I look away and smirk slightly. All I can think to myself is good girl.

Trista Jaszczak (jazz-ick) is the author of the Believe series (reinterpreted fairy tales), and upcoming relaunches, Loverboy, What Lies Inside and the Darkness Falls series. She is an Air Force spouse and mother to two mischievous and rambunctious little girls. She is originally from Hamilton, Ohio but calls home where ever the Air Force sends her. She currently resides in Anchorage, Alaska where she finds endless inspiration in the pure Alaskan wilderness. When she isn't writing, she spends her time with her family in the vast Alaskan outdoors, plucking away at her old guitar or working on self-improvement in the gym. She loves the outdoors, the moon, old movies and music.

DECIDE

Declan Reede: The Untold Story

Strap in, get ready to start your engines and see where it all began.

From an early age, Declan Reede’s only goal was to race in the ProV8 Championship Series. One thing he couldn’t anticipate was that a blistering kiss shared with his best friend, Alyssa Dawson, might derail his plans.

While he knows things between them will never be the same, it’s impossible to predict just where the road will take them, or how rocky it might get.

Michelle Irwin has been many things in her life: a hobbit taking a precious item to a fiery mountain; a young child stepping through the back of a wardrobe into another land; the last human stranded not-quite-alone in space three million years in the future; a young girl willing to fight for the love of a vampire; and a time-travelling madman in a box. She achieved all of these feats and many more through her voracious reading habit. Eventually, so much reading had to have an effect and the cast of characters inside her mind took over and spilled out onto the page.

Michelle lives in sunny Queensland in the land down under with her surprisingly patient husband and ever-intriguing daughter, carving out precious moments of writing and reading time around her accounts-based day job. A lover of love and overcoming the odds, she primarily writes paranormal and fantasy romance.

Thursday, July 30, 2015

How can you be twenty-five and not know you’re gay? Billy Ballew runs from that question. A high school dropout, barely able to read until he taught himself, Billy’s life is driven by his need to help support his parents as a construction worker, put his sisters through college, coach his Little League team, and not think about being a three-time loser in the engagement department. Being terrified of taking tests keeps Billy from getting the contractor's license he so desires, and fear of his mother's judgement blinds Billy to what could make him truly happy.

Then, in preparation for his sister’s big wedding, Billy meets Shaz—Chase Phillips—a rising star, celebrity stylist who defines the word gay. To Shaz, Billy embodies everything he’s ever wanted—stalwart, honest, brave—but even if Billy turns out to be gay, he could never endure the censure he’d get for being with a queen like Shaz. How can two men with so little in common find a way to be together? Can the Stylist of the Year end up with the Knight of Ocean Avenue?

“Okay, I need to ask, and I have nothing on it so don’t get defensive.”

Billy squinched his nose. “That’s not the best way to keep a guy from getting defensive.”

Shaz grinned. “I know. Not subtle, but seriously, why haven’t you taken the contractor’s license test?”

Shit. Defensive.

Shaz held up a hand. “I assume it has something to do with your reading ability, but I thought Clancy and Yerby and all those others on your bookshelves overcame that issue.”

“Yeah. Pretty much.”

“You read well enough to take the test? Because if not, I’ll bet they’ll let someone read it to you.”

“I can read.” He put down his fork.

Shaz leaned over and picked up the fork. “Come on, darling, this is Shazzy Wazzy. I am no threat at all to you.” He scooped some mashed potatoes and flew them like a plane toward Billy’s mouth.

For a second, Billy compressed his lips. Jesus, the guy was impossible to resist. He burst out laughing. The first time he’d ever laughed at this subject. “I’m afraid to take tests. I panic.” His heart beat fast just thinking of it. He snapped the potatoes off the fork and chewed.

Shaz put a hand on his arm, which made him feel calm and excited at the same time. “How do you know?”

“Know what?”

“That you panic when you take tests?”

Billy frowned. “I’ve blown every test I tried to take since the eighth grade. It got so bad I had to drop out of high school. I could have tested out, but I couldn’t take the test, and I never got my GED because I—”

“Couldn’t take the test. My God, that’s awful.”

The frown got deeper. “Like I said, I’m too dumb to take tests.”

Shaz leaned over until all he could see was that pretty face. “This has nothing to do with dumb. Does it?”

Billy stared at his almost empty plate.

“Does it?”

He shook his head.

“What does it have to do with? Who made you afraid?”

“What?”

“I said who made you afraid. Someone did.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because you’re a strong, capable man who isn’t afraid to take the whole damned world on his shoulders. There’s no reason for you to be afraid of anything unless someone told you there was.”

He nodded slowly. His heart hammered so hard it felt like his chest would explode. “I got beat up a lot in grade school because I was small and couldn’t read.” He shrugged. “I know. Hard to believe, right? Behemoth that I am. Anyway, my eighth grade English teacher was the worst, I guess. I could barely read, and she gave us test after test. I couldn’t read the books and I couldn’t read the test.” His pulse hammered in his ears. Like he was back there in that god-awful room. “She constantly told me how dumb I was and made sure the whole class knew it. I didn’t grow until I was sixteen. I was still a little runt then and got beat up every day while they called me stupid.” Shit, tears pushed out of his eyes. This was not good. “I have to stop talking about this. I have to go.”

“No, Billy, I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault.” He fished in his pocket and pulled out a wad of bills. He threw some on the table. Maybe a hundred dollars. Then he ran for the door.

“Billy!”

The cool evening air hit him like a bucket of water in the face. Where the hell was he going? He’d driven his truck. It was full of furniture, and Shaz had no way to get home. Billy Ballew did not leave a friend behind.

He stared down the sidewalk. That bench looked inviting. Staggering a little, he walked to it and sat. Just breathe. That’s why he never talked about this subject. Never even thought about it if he could avoid it. If he could just forget it, things would be better.

“Billy.”

He looked up at Shaz, who stood on the steps of the restaurant. The man walked toward him with that graceful saunter of his. “You didn’t go. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you left me here to rot.”

He managed to cock half a smile. “Too dry in California to rot.”

“Wither and blow away, then.” Shaz sat next to him. “I truly am sorry. I didn’t mean to open wounds. I have too many of my own to be picking at yours.” He held out his hand with a palm full of money. “You dropped something.”

“I want to pay for dinner.”

“Nope.”

“The champagne.”

“Nope. The least I can do after spoiling your meal is pay for it.”

“But—”

“Never argue with a queen, darling. We always win.”

About the Author

Tara Lain writes the Beautiful Boys of Romance in LGBT erotic romance novels that star her unique, charismatic heroes. Her first novel was published in January of 2011 and she’s now somewhere around book 23. Her best­selling novels have garnered awards for Best Series, Best Contemporary Romance, Best Ménage, Best LGBT Romance, Best Gay Characters, and Tara has been named Best Writer of the Year in the LRC Awards. In her other job, Tara owns an advertising and public relations firm. She often does workshops on both author promotion and writing craft.

She lives with her soul­mate husband and her soul­mate dog in Laguna Beach, California, a pretty seaside town where she sets a lot of her books. Passionate about diversity, justice, and new experiences, Tara says on her tombstone it will say “Yes”!